


i'm not who i used to be

by hockeydyke



Series: Samwell Women's Hockey [5]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: F/F, National Women's Hockey League, Poor parent-child relationships, This isn't RPF but Celeste is in fact playing for Boston Pride
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 09:07:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13163751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hockeydyke/pseuds/hockeydyke
Summary: Celeste's first game as a professional hockey player.Part of my December 2017 holiday prompt fills!





	i'm not who i used to be

_ October 11, 2015 _

 

The buzzer sounds. Somehow, even after twenty-some years of playing hockey in various rinks across the US and Canada, the noise still shocks Celeste this time, and she drops her stick. A second later she goes flying when one of her linemates bowls her over with a hug.

 

The game is over. 

 

Celeste’s first game as a professional is over, and they  _ won,  _ 4-1. Celeste didn’t score, but she got  _ two assists.  _ She lets out a whoop and follows her teammates to the goal so she can celebrate with everyone else as they head back onto the ice from the bench. They won their first ever game.

 

And to top it all off, she thinks as she looks up into the stands, she did it all with some of the people she cares most about in the crowd. There they are-- she can see Jordan, on her feet and cheering with Celeste’s father at her side. Celeste manages to wave at them once before she’s dragged into the tunnel in the middle of her crowd of teammates. 

 

The locker room is full of laughter and shouting, and a fair amount of singing, too. Celeste gets caught up answering questions for a local news reporter, but the energy hasn’t died at all by the time she’s done, so she unlaces her skates and gets out of her gear with a big smile on her face. 

 

Five years ago, after her disastrous Olympics debut, she wasn’t sure if she’d ever play again. And then once she’d figured out she never really wanted to stop, she thought she’d play for college and then switch to some small beer regional team once she’d graduated. Yet here she is, playing professionally. And she’s paid a little! And she has health insurance! 

 

(Okay, fine. She’s on her day job’s health insurance. But still)

 

She’s only just stripped off her pads when one of her teammates closer to the door yells, “Hey! Lefebvre’s dad is here!” 

 

There’s scattered laughter across the room, since they all know who Celeste’s dad is. Celeste decides  _ fuck it,  _ she’ll change out of her hockey pants later, and rushes out into the hall so she can fling her arms around her dad and give him a hug. 

 

Charles seems shocked for a second, because Celeste was never a physically affectionate child, but he quickly catches on and encircles his arms around her. “You did great,” he says.

 

“I know,” says Celeste, then lets go so she can  turn to Jordan. Jordan, who is wearing a LEFEBVRE #18 jersey like Charles, even though once she found out that the Pride’s first game of the season would be in Buffalo she’d threatened to wear a Beauts jersey to support her hometown team.

 

“Hey,” says Jordan, and Celeste is a little surprised she isn’t immediately engulfed in one of Jordan’s hugs or shoves or pokes. Celeste supposes she’s still a little shy in front of Charles, but hopefully that’ll change soon enough. She stands on her tiptoes to kiss Jordan’s cheek and grins at Jordan’s blush.

 

“Oh,  _ tabarnak,” _ says Charles under his breath, and Celeste pulls away to scold him because really, he’s usually a lot more supportive about this kind of thing, and--

 

Oh. 

 

_ Tabarnak.  _

Celeste’s mother is a few feet away from them across the hall, looking at Jordan with an indiscernible expression on her face. 

 

Celeste hasn’t seen her in person since before she left for college. She hadn’t attended Celeste’s graduation-- although, to be fair, in her defense, Celeste hadn’t invited her until the week before, and Claire was presenting at a conference for work and couldn’t reschedule at such short notice. 

 

Claire Beaulieu is coming up on fifty years old. She’s Celeste’s exact height but a little leaner-- she never was one for working out, besides cardio. Her hair is still a dark blonde, although Celeste is certain she must be dyeing it at this point. 

 

She’s wearing a #18 jersey. 

 

“Hello,” she says, in French, and for a second, Celeste is  _ pissed.  _ How dare she start caring now, and not when Celeste was eight and scared and missing her mother. How dare she pretend that she still sees Celeste as her daughter. 

 

Then she feels Jordan squeeze her hand, and the fight goes out of her, because she’s twenty-three and she doesn’t need her mother, but she supposes it might be fine to see her a little more often. 

 

“Hi, Mom. Did you like the game?” Celeste says, coolly. 

 

“You know I hate hockey,” says Claire. “But you did amazing. You’re a much better player than your father.”

 

“Hey!” Charles says, but when Celeste glances at him she sees that it’s said with an easygoing grin. 

 

“Thank you,” says Celeste. “Thanks for coming.”

 

“I’m glad I could make it,” says Claire. Then, in English, much more accented than her daughter’s: “And who’s this?”

 

“Me?” says Jordan. She’s been staring dumbly at Claire this whole time.

 

Celeste elbows her gently. “Yes, you. Mom, this is Jordan, my girlfriend. We played together at Samwell.”

 

This startles Jordan into motion. She reaches out a hand to shake and flashes Claire with a big smile. “Pleasure to meet you, Mrs.-- Uh. Ms.-- Uh.” She trails off. “Pleasure to meet you,” she repeats. 

 

“Claire is fine,” Claire says, taking Jordan’s hand and shaking. Celeste catches her mom’s slight frown when she catches sight of Jordan’s missing tooth. 

 

Once they let go of each other’s hands, there’s an uneasy silence. Celeste knows that her mom is going to want to talk-- about several things, those mainly being hockey as a career and the fact that she’s dating a girl, because yes, Celeste never exactly came out to her. She gives her mom a look, trying to mentally beg her not to bring that up until they’re speaking one-on-one. 

 

Thankfully, Claire just says, “Well,” then shuts up again.

 

Celeste takes this as an opportunity to change the subject. “I’m going out with the team tonight but the three of us were planning on grabbing breakfast tomorrow. Would you want to join us?”

 

Claire gives her a sad smile. “I fly back to Quebec tonight,” she says.

 

Celeste is grateful for this, actually. She didn’t want to sit through breakfast with Charles and Claire at the same table for the first time since Claire left him. “Oh, okay. Too bad,” she says. “I’ll call you tomorrow night, if that’s okay?”

 

“That’s okay,” Claire says. Then, without ceremony, she says, “I should get going,” turn around, and walks back down the hallway. 

 

Charles sighs and shakes his head, and Jordan makes a very expressive face as she watches Claire disappear. “Oh my god,” she finally manages. “That explains about 80% of your personality.” 

 

Celeste shoves her and gets a shove back. “I’m not that much like her.”

 

“Sure, not in the ways that it counts. But god, I thought she was going to murder me with her eyes! I didn’t realize that murder staring was genetic!” 

 

Celeste laughs and ruffles Jordan’s hair. “You shut up. I have to finish getting changed, okay?”

 

“Okay. We’ll wait,” Jordan says. “Go celebrate your win!”

 

“I will,” Celeste promises, and she gives Jordan and Charles one last hug each before she heads back inside.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Be As You Are by Mike Posner.
> 
> Later Jordan turns to Celeste and says, "Hey, sorry for what I'm about to say, but your mom is REALLY HOT." And Celeste is like. Of course you think that.
> 
> Did you guys appreciate my vague references to "teammates" without naming names of actual Pride players? Because I didn't want this to be RPF? Because I put effort into doing that!!
> 
> Please leave a comment or hit me up on tumblr where I'm @hockeydyke!


End file.
